


Balance (-11)

by Kaggath



Series: Playing Against the Dealer [2]
Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Mutual Pining, they have no idea it's just part of the Idiot's Array life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-19
Updated: 2018-12-19
Packaged: 2019-09-22 23:21:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17069132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaggath/pseuds/Kaggath





	Balance (-11)

The Fury hummed low like a warning growl from a big cat. Reverberating in the great metal chest of a vorn tiger, the ethereal purr rumbled in her ankles. Kati’po was almost within 2V-R8’s vocal range—he was chock full of etiquette programming, and shouting across the starship was, of course, poor etiquette—frozen in place.

Whatever Andronikos had been wanting to say, now he’d only had more time to stew in it. 

Andronikos joined her after she retrieved Zash’s artifact, and after he had taken his revenge on Wilkes. Before, it was just Kati’po, a gigantic warrior of ancient with needled teeth and hungry eyes, and her droid who expected to be deactivated about as much as she did herself. It was kind of nice to have a conversation partner for during the long, empty flows through hyperspace. 

He told her about the Sky Princess, asked her about herself. Propped against the cool metal of Fury’s bridge, he’d leaned in, listening attentively. Kati’po wasn’t used to someone listening to what she had to say, not when the lines were her own. 

Biting her lip, she balled her fists by her sides. Spectators hung to her every word when she was someone else. Someone they fooled themselves into thinking she was. It was impossible to believe someone could like who was underneath the makeup and starch and stranger’s clothes. Even these robes weren’t her own. They were a tapestry of destiny for somebody else, draped across her as she was puppeted around across the galaxy.

Andronikos might have…but after Alderaan and that damned Urtel Moren, the way he bristled when Moren spoke to her…and then the second they left house Thul he’d asked her to let him know when she had a minute to talk. It was like he’d poured all the ice on Alderaan into her blood.

As soon as they finally made it back to the Fury, she went to her room to thaw. The gear she got in preparation was just warm enough to keep her mobile, but if they stayed out too long her fingers got stiff around her lightsaber. But Andronikos was always there, always had her back, and they’d made it off Alderaan with minimal scarring and no mishaps with the local fauna.

When she finally mustered up the courage to approach him…

“Are you teasing me, or are you into me.”

Did he know on Tatooine? The way she reached out to him unconsciously, the way she didn’t want to say goodbye. 

“I’m a pirate, you’re a Sith.”

He may be the first person she had a chance to really connect with, outside of trainers and acolytes and rivals and monsters. But she was still a Sith. No alliance could change that. She was from another world, whether she wanted to be or not. Did he expect her to be like them? 

“I’m happy as anybody to give a girl what she wants, but I’m not your slave…right?”

Of course…that mask she now wore. The Sith. Even if she didn’t want him to, he’d believed it. Just like Zash, and Moren, all the Imperials who sneered down at her for being an alien, but could do nothing because of her power. Andronikos believed she, because she was Sith, cared only for her own freedom. She never told him this was her first step into that freedom.

After their conversation, Kati’po could tell he still wanted to talk. They’d just arrived at Vaiken, and she needed more gear for the coming missions. She needed to be away for a moment. To think about what he said, what she wanted to say, but now that she was back, she was only more confused. 

The growing ache in Kati’po’s knuckles pulled her out of it, just far enough to take the first step.

 

 

Fingers laced behind his head, staring at the ceiling, Andronikos wondered what he’d gotten himself into this time. Furthermore, what had that crazy Sith gotten them into? She had squared her shoulders and informed him that she was going to “the fleet” for supplies. He was to stay aboard the Fury while she did her mysterious Sithly business.

At first he’d stayed on the bridge, but the sight of all those Imp ships made him anxious. The droid 2V wasn’t much fun, and that Deshade thing? Gave Andronikos the willies. Eyes too small, claws too big, too damn many teeth…and the way it watched him? Made him decide poking through the ship while his new friend was out may not be the best—or most self-preservational—idea. 

So he’d went to the crew’s chambers. Alone with his thoughts.

He didn’t like to be alone with those. Had just as many teeth as the Deshade.

After hunting down that son of a Hutt Wilkes, there was a great big empty. As big as the ether, but less free. Andronikos hadn’t considered what came after revenge. So he’d sweet talked his way onto this ship.

Plus…after that night on Tatooine, he felt like he had to stick with the Sith. She had a damn good sabacc face when she needed to. Put fear in a good fistful of the folk who crossed her. But it was a mask, and while they might not have seen it, Andronikos had.

Those wide violet eyes hadn’t seen much of the galaxy, but there was still a soft kind of sadness lingering in them. She may be a Sith, but she was good people. Maybe too good. Hadn’t even known about womp rats or an Idiot’s Array. She’d believed whatever slime ball’d told her she was losing at sabacc with the best hand in the game.

Grimacing, shifting uncomfortably under the weight of his own guilt, Andronikos felt an old, unfamiliar sentiment. Yeah…she’d believed the slime ball that told her he’d been an accountant, too.

Lying was a language Andronikos was more fluent in than Basic. In his line of work the truth’d get you killed, blackmailed, hunted, tortured. Whatever. Never good to have a backstory you could actually trace. 

So why’d he tell her about his old man? He hadn’t even told Casey about that. It just spilled out. Not that he could face her when he said it. No. He’d turned, standing at attention like he was back in the damned military. He couldn’t mislead her with his words, so he’d sent them out the other way, like maybe they’d get lost in the ether with every other thing he said. 

Something about her just. Drew him in. It wasn’t like he needed to protect her. That was one thing she did have going for her. She was capable. Might not have a taste for blood, but when choice came between someone else’s life and hers, she chose to fight tooth and saber, and she was damn good at it. Andronikos had never seen anyone move like that, and he’d done plenty of fighting in his day.

She wasn’t a child. She wasn’t incapable. He respected her. A lot. Was that why he wanted to be by her side?

Shaking the thoughts out of his spinning mind, Andronikos decided he’d had enough of the bunk. Imps or no imps, the bridge was where he belonged. Besides, now that he was rolling with the big bad Sith, what could they do to him? He was legal here. 

Looking out the viewport, Andronikos saw her coming back, head down, rifling through some datapad and counting on her fingers. Cute.

“You got it bad, Nikki,” he could almost hear Casey say. 

As the Sith disappeared under the belly of the Fury, preparing to board, Andronikos returned to his little corner, just in reach of the controls. Just out of sight of the rest of the crew, alone in the dark and quiet. Up there, it didn’t feel like waiting around in a cell. It felt like preparing for something better.

 

Kati’po didn’t put away her haul. She brisked past 2V-R8, who was happy to chatter away to her back, and crossed the threshold into the bridge. No turning back now.

Somehow she’d known she’d find Andronikos there. Leaned against the hull, he looked like he belonged there. Maybe he did. 

“Hey…” she said in a voice too squeaky to belong to a Sith. This was going most excellently.

“You hear that, Sith?”

Kati’po cocked her head, straining forward to hear…what exactly?

“Nothing like it in the galaxy, the hum of an idling blaster. Potential energy, right there!”

Kati’po blinked at him. Had he followed her onto the station? Surely he couldn’t have…but now he was talking about blasters, potential energy. Wanting to prove she could be more than just a self-absorbed, hateful, manipulating Sith she’d searched top to bottom for a new pair of blasters for Andronikos.

He mentioned a custom set, but they’d never been able to recover them. Maybe, if she got him newer, better blasters she could convince him maybe she wasn’t all bad.

“It’s like waking up on your birthday, wondering what you got.”

He knew. He had to. But how? So much for her surprise.

“For a few minutes, it’s anything. The whole galaxy. Just waiting for you to pull the trigger.”

“For the strong, silent type you sure have a way with words…” Kati’po tried to bring the talk away from blasters. Maybe she could hide them, and give them to him later. Except, they were about to head out again, and if he came with her like she wanted him to, he’d need the best available to him. Why was this so hard?

“If you’re gonna say something, make it memorable,” he shrugged. “Actually I was wondering—these blasters are nice, but a pirate’s only as good as his equipment. We don’t got fancy Force powers like you Sith.”

Why wouldn’t he just come out and say it? He obviously knew. There was no point in trying to hide it now. Well if he wanted to play cool and aloof, she could too.

“I think I have a spare set here, if that’s what you’re asking for.” Yes, Kati’po. Because normal people just carry around a set of blasters they don’t even use. Great job. She mentally smacked herself on the forehead. 

“I’ll pay it back, Sith. Don’t worry. Thanks.”

Kati’po didn’t understand exactly what happened, but that didn’t matter much now. No more putting it off…they had to fly to Dromund Kaas. Sorting out her feelings about Andronikos would have to wait.


End file.
